Groundwater Quality and Human Health Risk

Dear Colleagues,

One of the largest global resource problems to be faced in the coming years is access to safe water. Groundwater often requires less treatment and is therefore preferred over surface water as a source of drinking water. Utilizing groundwater as a sustainable resource requires the protection and preservation of suitable groundwater. Earth processes and geochemical processes occurring in the lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, atmosphere, and anthroposphere control water composition and its use. Since groundwater travels through earth materials (rocks, sediments, soils), it can pick up geologically occurring trace elements or radionuclides. Agriculture, industry, human, and animal waste are among the most common sources of groundwater contaminants. Contaminant interactions in the subsurface system are affected, among others, by properties of earth materials, microbiological activities, and hydrogeological conditions.

In contrast to physical hazards (landslides, volcanoes, earthquakes), chemical hazards are challenging to accurately identify in space and time. Groundwater may contain chemical compounds that affect human health. If water intended for human consumption contains an unsafe level of chemical compounds, microbes, and radionuclides, it can cause severe health effects such as cancer, reproductive or developmental effects, skin discoloration, and organ damage. The main tools for determining the potential adverse effects of contaminants are evaluating human health risk and epidemiological studies. Meticulous research on contaminant redistribution from the land surface down to the water table plays a crucial role in delineating processes controlling groundwater quality. Most national authorities and stakeholders already have established standards for drinking water, including limits for several common constituents. The question is therefore whether the standards for drinking water need further revision or not. The main objective of this Special Issue is to help bridge the gap between knowledge on groundwater quality and its impact on human health.

This Special Issue invites researchers to submit relevant manuscripts focusing on the following aspects (but not limited to):

• Medical geology and groundwater contamination
• Organic solvents in groundwater and human health
• Geochemical environment and human health
• Links between geochemical environment and disease
• Geochemical processes and effects on human health
• Long-term health risk and pollution
• Connections between groundwater quality and public health
• Positive and negative societal impacts on groundwater quality
• Land uses and groundwater quality
• Groundwater quality changes and associated health risk effects
• Earth material toxicity or deficiency and public health
• Deficiency and toxicity of trace elements
• Exposure to carcinogens via ingestion of groundwater
• Chemical exposure through groundwater and health effects

Prof. Dr. Dimitrios E. Alexakis
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.